Afilias Sets GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ Title: Largest Migration of an Internet Top-Level Domain in a Single Transition

Afilias successfully completed the historic transition of more than 3.1 million domain names in the .au internet top level domain

Afilias Australia Pty Ltd announced today that it has set the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for Largest migration of an internet top-level domain in a single transition following its transfer of 3,153,979 .au domain names on Sunday, July 1, 2018. The transfer was made from the systems of a legacy technology provider to Afilias’ state of the art registry system in Melbourne, Australia.

Internet top level domain transitions are rare events, as they involve moving all the records for internet addresses ending in, for example, “.au” (i.e. the name, expiration date, registrant, etc.) from the systems of one registry provider to those of another. In addition, the active directory for the names must move. If done improperly, names may stop working, which could be disastrous.

auDA, the domain authority for all addresses ending in “.au,” hosted an RFP process in 2017 to advance the goals set by the .au Registry Transformation Project; this process led to the selection of Afilias to replace the legacy provider. Planning began in December, and the transition itself was completed on July 1, 2018. .au is one of the largest country code domains in the world (over 3M names), but Afilias, the global leader in secure transitions, was able to complete this move without interrupting service to any names.

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS Adjudicator Hannah Ortman presented Afilias Australia Pty Ltd with their GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS certificate during an event today in New York City. Attendees included: from Afilias, Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, and Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer; from auDA, Cameron Boardman, Chief Executive Officer, and Alister Paterson, Head of Government Affairs, Strategic Advisor; and from GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS Hannah Ortman, Head of North America Records Management Team, Peter Harper, SVP Americas, and Alex Angert, Senior Account Manager.

“Afilias is proud to receive the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the Largest Migration of an Internet Top-Level Domain in a Single Transition” said Ram Mohan, EVP and CTO of Afilias. He added: “We have transitioned and upgraded many top-level domains but are especially proud of the .au project due to its size and complexity. .au can now enter a new era of growth and vitality enabled by modern, high capacity, secure, resilient and Australian-based infrastructure. We look forward to supporting the entire Australian internet community for many years to come.”

Cameron Boardman, CEO of auDA said: “The transition to Afilias’ modern registry positions .au to provide all Australians the best possible service by ensuring the reliability and security of operations as well as the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data.”

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS Adjudicator, Hannah Ortman, said “It is an honor to present Afilias Australia Pty Ltd a certificate for achieving a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title. I am thrilled to announce they are now Officially Amazing™!”

About Guinness World Records
GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS (GWR) is the global authority on record-breaking achievement. First published in 1955, the iconic annual Guinness World Records books have sold over 141 million copies in 22 languages and in more than 100 countries. Additionally, the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition, first published in 2007, has sold more than 4 million copies to date.

Guinness World Records’ worldwide television programmes reach over 750 million viewers annually and more than 3.3 million people subscribe to the GWR YouTube channel, which enjoys more than 450 million views per year. The GWR website receives over 19.9 million visitors annually, and we have over 15 million fans on Facebook.

The Guinness World Records commercial sales division provides customized consultancy services for some of the world’s top brands and agencies to help place record breaking at the heart of their marketing campaigns, employee-engagement programmes, and live and experiential events.

Twitter – @GWRPRESS / @GWR

About auDA
.au Domain Administration Limited (auDA) is the administrator and industry self-regulatory policy body for Australia’s .au domain space. auDA serves to advance and enhance the .au space for the benefit of all Australians. auDA is endorsed by the Australian Government and recognised by the International Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN) as the manager of the .au domain space. auDA is committed to the multi-stakeholder approach to internet governance, representing the interests of .au around the world and plays a vital role in ensuring a stable and secure .au domain space. For more information, visit www.auda.org.au

About Afilias
Afilias is the world’s second largest domain registry, with millions of domain names under its management. Afilias powers a wide variety of top-level domains, including TLDs for countries, cities, brands, communities and generic terms. Afilias’ specialized technology makes Internet addresses more accessible and useful through a broad range of applications, including Internet domain registry services, managed DNS, and mobile Web services. Afilias holds a Guinness World Records title for the “Largest migration of an internet top-level domain in a single transition” for its migration of the .au top-level domain in 2018. For more information on Afilias services, visit www.afilias.info or www.afilias.com.au.